Ice, Ice, Baby
by Vree Miel
Summary: All Vree Miel needs to craft her new bow is one little ice crystal... Part One posted, more to come!


Pale blue shining light.

"Imps, must kill imps," Vree Miel muttered to herself, her tail twitching back and forth, her eyes to the ground.

Cold tendrils down to the molecular level.

"Which guild leve has imps..."

Elusive and evasive.

"Why am I talking to myself?" The Miqo'te snapped her head up quickly. Bathed in the light of Camp Bloodshore's Aetheryte, the white tip of Vree's tail shone an iridescent shade of blue, causing her white furs to become a new hue that reminded her of something... Something...

"Ooo, sparkly," her eyes lit up and she batted at her tail until that reminder eventually made it from tail to brain.

"Curse you, ice crystal!"

Rank 14 archer and still wielding a weathered bow. Vree fumed, thinking of her saw and hammer back in Limsa Lomimsa. Animal glue? Check. Maple branch and lumber? Check. Linen bowstring and sheep leather? No problem. All the ingredients a carpenter would ever need to begin crafting a maple longbow, the latest weapon for a Miqo'te of her rank. Everything. Except. An ice crystal.

A passing by Lalafell, plump and portly, approached the miffed miqo'te. "Say, did you make mention of something cold? Something bold? Something icy with a bluish spark. Have I hit the mark?

"Why, are you selling one?" her eyes held a slightly maniacal, slightly greedy gleam that caused the little one to attempt taking a step backwards. A failed attempt, because he wasn't quick enough for Vree's reflexes. She held the Lalalfell by the neck of his cotton robe, and his feet wiggled around, searching for solid ground.

"Why y-yes, my friend, if that's what you need, your search has come to an end!"

"Yeeeow~" Vree cried with glee, her eyes gazing towards the faraway sky, her paws together as she smiled a fang-baring smile. In her yelp of glory, she of course had paid no heed to the fact that she had been using one of those hands to hold up a Lalafell. She had promptly dropped the poor fellow and in her own way, granted him his wish to be put down. He fell ungracefully on his behind, but one would never know it, for he was back on his feet and rummaging through his pack within moments.

"Ice crystal~ Ice crystal~" Vree sang as she swayed her hips and watched her new best friend at work.

"I know I have one, I just put it away. Bolotto Totto is here to save the day! Wait... Ice crystal you say?"

"Yes! Ice crystal! Trade now!" Vree was so excited to have finally found her missing treasure that her speech became stilted. "Pay gil! Give crystal! Now!"

"Why, I'm sorry to admit, our fair trade must be forfeit. It must not be in the cards; for I only have ice shards. But if a fire crystal is what you need, look no further, take no heed!"

"Noooo!" Vree opened her arms to the sky, as though the rain would begin to pour because of her poor anguish. The elusive ice crystal was elusive once more. Dangled in front of her face like a tantalizing worm to a tantalizing fish, where the worm is soon consumed by the fish only to realize he's been hooked in by the fisherman, who decided to keep the fish instead of giving it to Vree.

"Welly well," Bolotto Totto stood with his arms crossed, staring curiously at the miqo'te. "You seem to be in a peculiar hell. If an ice crystal I shall find, I will most certainly keep you in mind."

"Fine," Vree snapped, still caught in her moment of fish-snatched-awayness.

"Goodbye, then; I hope you find your cystal quickity quick, and that it does the trick!" The Lalafell waved farewell, still a bit perplexed by the Miqote's behavior.

Vree sighed. "Well, I guess it's back to the guild leves." She selected "An Imp in Sheep's Clothing" and started out towards the sheep in search of crystal-dropping Zikkos. She headed west in search of the fluffy white sheep that would bring out the imps. She drew her bow against the little baa machines and light shot her way to victory.

"More xp, closer to rank 15, no closer to my bow!" Vree spotted the next sheep and readied a close shot. "And why do I keep talking to myself?" The sheep was quickly extinguished, and it revealed the true enemy – two Zikkos!

"Deep breaths, Vree, deep breaths, mrow!" She quickly killed the first Zikko, but she was quickly nearing defeat. Far from the Aetheryte, she had no way to heal as the fiendish foe clawed at her. The first one had failed to drop an ice crystal, so her fated rested in the hands of something that could possibly bring her to her untimely kitty demise. Vree put her weapon away and started to run. She would go just far enough that the creature would leave her alone.

Out of breath and bloodied up, Vree made it back to the Aetheryte. She touched the glowing crystal and went west once more. Fully healed, the Zikko was no match for Vree, but he was a mocking sort of imp, so it was no strange occurrence that he too was ice crystal-free.

Fueled by anger, Vree maneuvered to the next wave of sheep and shot arrow after arrow until the next two Zikkos showed their ugly impish faces. She killed them quickly, her skill as an archer continuing to improve. But.

"Still. No. Ice crystal!" Vree's tail twitched. Or maybe that was her eye twitching. All that mattered was that something was twitching, and it wasn't an ice crystal. She was mocked by more shards. "Shards, shards, useless shards!" Vree tossed them to the ground like they were worth less than a pebble.

"Alright, Vree. Time for Plan B..." Vree spun around so she faced Limsa Lomimsa, and teleported back to the city, apparently forgetting her alphabet, since Plan B would imply that she hadn't tried ten other methods of obtaining an ice crystal already.


End file.
